know me by His scars.

I think I’ve been sick more often in the past year-ish than I have in the last decade of my life. If you know anything about out the last decade of my life, that may be surprising to you – it is to me. Different stress shows up in the body in different ways, I guess.

And here I am sick/not sick. Again. Sinuses, snot, coughs, fatigue. It’s become a nearly monthly event anymore. I’m over it.

So while I’m here, the question, as usual, needs to be not “why is this happening to me again?” but rather, “why is this happening for me?” or, “what is here for me to learn?” This set of questions is valid for just about any set of circumstances that either keep repeating or make us tend toward discontentment.

“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28 (CSB)

We also know God says, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’” -Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)

And also that He, “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” – Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)

That means it’s time to get curious. What else is happening here? What outliers am I missing? What is going on behind that ever-present, insufferable “I” that wants to put itself in the middle of everything.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” – Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

A time for everything, and our God is always on time.

Even when we don’t like it.

Even when it doesn’t make sense.

If it’s reached us, it’s been Father-filtered.

It may not be by His hand, but He has allowed it.

One day we’ll know the answers, understand the why’s. But that one day may not be on this side of eternity.

Our focus can’t be on the why’s or on what we think is fair (or not), it has to be on the One who made us, who knows us, who wants what’s best for us – even if it hurts.

Whatever He’s doing, it’s ultimately for my good, and that “good” isn’t something I can make happen on my own – it’s beyond what I ask Him for or think of. It’s His way, and His way is always better.

Does He live up to your expectations? He always shatters mine. And thank God for that! They’re too limited. I don’t want to serve a god who is restricted to what I can plan out.

I don’t want to trust me. I want to trust Him.

Do you?

Even if He doesn’t live up to your expectations?

Even if you can’t understand what He’s doing or why?

Even if it means pain? Suffering? Maybe even death?

Where do you stand?

Will you choose to trust a God whose ways sometimes seem cruel from a human perspective?

Will you choose to look at your life and your circumstances through heaven’s eyes?

Because if you do, what you see might surprise you.

He is always good.

He is always working all things together for our good.

He is always trustworthy.

“For ALL the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” – 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV) [emphasis mine]

Everything He says is going to happen.

“For we are God’s handiwork [NLT-masterpiece], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

He planned you, He made you a masterpiece, and He has a plan for your life, a purpose.

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,” – Hebrews 6:19 (NKJV)

Let Him be the sure anchor of your soul. He’ll keep you steady even as these trials and tribulations keep looping.

Just as it’s always darkest before the dawn, the enemy always puts up the biggest fight right before defeat.

“Do not, therefore, dread the coming of greater opposition, or the apparent increase in strength of those oppositions that already exist, for it has always been so in the history of events that the hour of the triumph of evil is the hour of its doom.” – Charles Spurgeon, Power over Satan

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they did not love their lives to the death.” – Revelation 12:11 (NKJV)

Whatever you’re facing right now, I know one thing for certain:

The best is definitely still yet to come.

Seasons loop too. Spring will come back around again.

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say on the Lord!” – Psalm 27:13-14 (NKJV)

Keep pressing into Jesus; He is more than able to keep you.

Emily